Santa Cruz County firefighters learn new EMT skills

Santa Cruz >> More than 100 firefighters from isolated, rural fire stations in Santa Cruz County will add to their repertoires after they've completed a pilot program designed to advance their life-saving skills.

The program is managed by the Emergency Medical Services Integration Authority, an organization focused on planning and coordinating emergency medical services in the county for the fire departments. The goal of the new program is to teach firefighters from Cal Fire and Boulder Creek Fire Protection District three new skills to use on medical calls.

"It could be life-saving skills that we'd be using," said Kevin McClish, fire chief for Boulder Creek Fire. "It might sound small ... but for us, they're pretty significant skills."

Fifteen firefighters from the station will undergo the Expanded Scope Emergency Medical Technician program, McClish said.

Of the 12 fire agencies within the county, six — Watsonville, Aptos/La Selva, Central, Santa Cruz, Scotts Valley and Branciforte — have paramedics on staff. The remaining agencies — Boulder Creek, Ben Lomond, Felton, Zayante, County and Cal Fire — are mostly staffed with volunteers in rural, isolated areas with only EMTs on staff.

About 80 percent of the roughly 500 firefighters in the county are emergency medical technicians who can provide basic life support services on medical calls, said Scott Vahradian, EMS Chief for the EMS Integration Authority. The other 20 percent are paramedics.

"The big difference is paramedics are allowed to provide what are called invasive skills on patients," he said, adding that it's a higher level of medical care.

While EMTs can perform a number of critical, basic life support skills, they sometimes have to wait for paramedics to arrive for the patient to receive more advance intervention, Vahradian said.

"EMTs could provide oxygen to a patient stung by a bee in anaphylactic shock but they'd have to wait for paramedics to administer life-saving medication such as adrenaline, Benadryl or intravenous fluids," Vahradian said.

While the new program won't elevate EMTs to the level of paramedics, Vahradian said the training will allow them to perform three additional skills: Monitoring the oxygen level in a patient's blood, using a ventilation tube that's more effective at delivering oxygen to patients and being able to use a mask to help patients in respiratory distress.

"The thinking is that if you could provide additional advance skills, you could hopefully improve the possibility of a good outcome for that patient," Vahradian said.

The training is an eight-hour session divided into a lecture portion and a skills portion. After the training, firefighters take written and practical exams.

Though other county agencies can take part in the pilot program, it's likely officials are waiting to see what happens with the first set of trainees, Vahradian said. After the pilot program finishes, fire officials will make the decision to make the program permanent.

"I fully anticipate this thing going from pilot to permanent status and being able to offer it up to other departments in the county," Vahradian said.